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Sandoval meets with protesters camping outside Nevada Legislature
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Cathleen Allison/The Associated Press
Gov. Brian Sandoval, right, speaks Wednesday to a group of students and human services advocates outside the Nevada Legislature in Carson City. The group has been camping outside the Legislature to show support for a Democrat tax package that would help ease cuts to state education.
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
CARSON CITY -- Gov. Brian Sandoval met Wednesday morning with students and activists in "Sandoville," a tent encampment on the lawn of the Legislative Building erected to protest the governor's policies.
Sandoval, a Republican, visited the tent city for about 25 minutes to deliver coffee and doughnuts to the protesters and get an earful from the group, which wants him to go back on his promise to oppose tax and fee increases.
"I think a recovering economy is the best thing for our state," Sandoval told about two dozen protesters gathered around a picnic table.
The visit came on the students' third and final scheduled day of encampment, during which they protested cuts to education and social services included in Sandoval's proposed $6.1 billion general fund budget for 2011-13.
"It is not because we have nothing to do, it is because we think this is serious business," Carla Castedo, a 23-year-old student at the University of Nevada, Reno, said of the protest. "We have jobs, we vote and yet we are not being heard."
Sandoval answered questions with examples of businesses, schools and communities he has visited that he said are recovering from the recession that sucked about 170,000 jobs out of the Nevada economy.
He said his promise to oppose tax increases will help the recovery continue by encouraging businesses to spend money hiring workers.
"That is what I am fighting for, to get people back to work, which will help solve all of these issues you brought up," Sandoval said.
Activist Laura Martin told Sandoval that fallout from his budget proposal will cause damage that he isn't acknowledging.
"You are very optimistic," Martin told Sandoval. "You visit these neighborhoods, and we live in them."
The protest comes as Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature are struggling to produce a budget of their own in time for the June 6 conclusion of the 120-day legislative session.
Democrats want to spend about $7\u2007billion, a figure that includes about $571 million in new taxes on business revenue and services and $626 million from postponing the expiration date on existing taxes.
They would use the money to boost spending over Sandoval's proposal by about $700 million in grades K-12, $120\u2007million in higher education and $80 million in health and human services.
Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.
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WAH WAH WAH! Get this through your freeloading skulls, kiddies...there are no (REPEAT: NO) free rides. Somebody always has to pay the bill. Kick the can down the road to cover your behinds right now, but just know that one day soon, it'll be your turn. It'll be YOUR money being blown on our increasing cost/diminishing return educational system. Maybe then you'll understand what Gov. Sandoval is doing. In the mean time, quit sitting on the capitol lawn playing with your iPhone that Mommy and Daddy bought--Tweeting to your friends about how unfair life is--and get back to class and learn something. You're going to need to have a usefull/high-paying skill to cover the cost of the next generation.
"A man under 25 who is not a liberal has no heart. A man over 35 who is not a conservative has no brains."
In 2009, the mining industry reported gross revenue of 5.8 BILLION and paid taxes of 48.6 MILLION. In the 2010 Annual Report of Barrick mining some details were provided of the operations at the Cortez Hill mine in Nevada. In 2010, 1.14 MILLION ounces (approximately 36 TONS) were mined at a cost of $312 per ounce. In the first quarter of 2011, the same mine produced 366000 ounces (approximately 11 TONS) at a cost of $220 per ounce. Assuming a gold price of $1420 per ounce, which may be low, the profit for Barrick Mining for the 1st quarter of production from the Cortez Hill Mine comes to just over 439 MILLION. We were talking about fair share.
In 2010, the gaming industry in Nevada reported gross gaming revenue of 5.8 BILLION and paid 416 MILLION in state Taxes. Nevada is the second largest producer of gold in the WORLD!!!!!
The mining industry has been "buying" Nevada politicians since the 1800s. I think that's why they pay such low taxes on such high profits. Foreign corps have become owners of the mines over the years. The same music plays on and dancers of the decades keep shuffelling around in the dirt. You might say we have a mexican standoff. The "good stuff" is in Nevada ground. Foreign corps have legal property rights to the land. It's an international situation. Nevada can/does impose various controls over mining operations, (safety, reporting, taxing, etc). The industry's cost of doing business includes payoffs above and below the table to local, state, federal and international officials. There is a growing demand from Nevadans to increase taxes on the mining industry. The industry just stuffs a few more $100 bills in the envelopes to minimize the impact. The dance goes on. Student protests initiated by educrats and supported by unions is just a job protection scam. Calls for Sandoval's impeachment isn't going anywhere. Good, bad, indifferent, he's only the current singer in the same old band. I feel the dancers (the public) are getting feed up with the same music. I sure hope so.
Like a breath of fresh air...Governor Sandavol arrives io the scene to talk some sense into the sadly mistaken & badly misinformed...
Great job Governor and thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule...
The protestors, while well meaning, have misdirected their energies. It's not the lack of funds, but rather the waste of those funds. The CCSD has way to many chiefs. I mean come on, are so many kids getting into trouble in the high schools that there needs to be two deans of students? I graduated from a school with a student body of 3000, and we only had one dean of students. How many vice principals are needed? There's just way to much middle management, and at least half of those "administrators" need to be sent back to the classroom. Yeah, that's it; for every current teacher that gets let go, an admin needs to be re-assigned. At least make the cuts have meaning. The colleges are mismanaged just as bad. CSN would not require one dime of state funding if they were allowed to keep all the tuition and fees they take in. But of course their coffers need to be raided to pay Dina Titus $125k a year for teaching three classes a week at UNLV. These students need to be protesting their own campus admins, they are the ones who have created this mess.
The little twits cannot read or write or pick up their trash.
it is apparent the public does not agree with the teachers unions, and their brainwashed minion students. bye bye schools.
This is the problem with guys like him, bring donuts and coffee and they'll forget about the issues. Wrong this one is not going away, hopefully NV can hang in there until his term is up. If it was my choice, I'd hand him a voucher and tell him to be on his way to the next state!
n7v.blogspot.com
Why don't you keep your weird beliefs to YOURSELF.
Garry, Mining took away from America over $8 billion in profits. On that they paid $100 million. That money was NOT reinvested in Nevada per Governor Sandoval. In fact, Barrick Gold bought a foreign copper company who sells to China. STOP the Republican Corporate lies. Facts speak for them selves. Your John Birch, Tea Party, and Sovereign Citizen point of view is way way out there. Be an American and stop foreign mining from taking from Nevada and U.S.A.